inFocus interview with branding guru Maria Ross, pt 1

Today, I’m introducing the first post in my inFocus interview series, which will feature business experts as well as inspirational artists and photographers.

First up is branding and marketing expert Maria Ross, founder of Red Slice. She is also the author of Branding Basics for Small Business, a short n’ sweet, but powerful read that I believe would benefit any small business owner.

In this interview, Maria shares what branding really is, how it differs from marketing, advertising, PR and social media, and what photographers and visual artists need to know about it. Here are a few of my favorite nuggets:

“Brand is more than a logo… It’s not just the visual, your logo, your colors, your website.”

“There’s so much information in the marketplace that you need to connect the dots for people. Don’t assume people are just going to get your message from the cues or from the portfolio, or something like that.”

“You build your marketing plan on a foundation of your brand…In order to make the right choices on which tactics and how you should lay out your marketing plan, you should have a really good sense of your brand and use that as a compass. As an example: Would Nordstrom advertise at a monster truck rally? No.”

“The photographer that has a clear message, and a clear market that they’re going after and story that they’re telling, maybe they’re not going to have the huge quantity of interest on the front end, but they’re actually going to get more sales because they’ll be more applicable to the people they want to do business with.”

For more, check out the video below:

So, what do you think? Did Maria say anything that changes how you think about your brand or your business? Let me know in the comment section below.

We discuss the how-tos of developing your brand in part 2 of the interview, which will go live next Friday.

Cheers,